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Culture and History - Coggle Diagram
Culture and History
Organisational culture
It is suggested by Barney (1986) that culture is able to deliver a competitive advantage for an organisation and he defines culture as a complex set of values, beliefs, assumptions and symbols that define the way in which a firm conducts its business'
A frequently occuring definition of the word 'culture' with many different citations is 'the way we do things around here' - this phrase is often used because it epitomises exactly what is meant by culture; people behave in a particular manner based around a number of different drivers and stimuli
Our need is to understand these drivers in a structured manner from different perspectives to help us to better analyse how the company behaves now, today and our perception and vision of either how we would like those behaviours to evolve or how those behaviours can underpin and be used to strengthn the strategic direction
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Our definition of what is happening 'today' is summed up in the operational circle where people are either:
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Making permitted adjustments within the currently permitted parameters of the operation of the organisation
The paramaters of the operational circle represent the working everyday culture of the organisation, the accumulated history of strategic thought and the decisions that have been taken to the point at which we are considering the organisation
Part of the process of the development of strategy is to allow people within an organisation to fulfil the task requirement by using their own intellect, experience and intelligence to ensure that the organisation's strategic vision is being delivered
We recognise that the forces of the macro environment are likely to challenge these parameters but if we have developed our strategic plan effectively, the internal (micro) allowed parameters of decision making will enable people within a learning organisation to drive the organisation forward in alignment with the strategic vision of the future
The point at which we analyse organisational culture can only ever be a consideration of the accumulation of wisdom and activity of those who have developed and operated the organisation from its original starting point to that very moment of analysis
Many organisations have long histories and their cultural drivers can stem back many years. Often these cultural drivers are intrinsically linked with the beliefs of the original founders and have remained as a core part of the organisational ethos and are immediately recongised by a wide group of stakeholders
Barney (1986) explains that each organisation has a unique culture which has developed over the life of that organisation and is embedded in the history and heritage of the organisation and its employees
The effective development of strategy requires an understanding of how an organisation behaves and why it behaves in that way
Cultural understanding can be achieved by firstly considering the historical development of the organisation, the different forces that have impacted upon its behaviours and secondly by considering how it aligns with the stereotypical models of culture